“It has generally been conceived that the ill-fated _President_ steam-ship snapped across some Atlantic wave, as a match might be snapped between the fingers; the still more gigantic _Great Western_, _Himalaya_, _Atrato_, and _Persia_ have, however, since that unfortunate accident, continued to plough their ways in safety through the ocean storms. The _Great Britain_ lay for months among the breakers of the rock-bound coast of Ireland, and yet finally floated off unscathed, to render good service to the British Government as a transport in time of need. The grand experiment of the cyclopean order of naval architecture is, however, in preparation, and shortly to be put to the test. The Great Eastern Steam Navigation Company have for some time been engaged in building an iron ship upon a scale, both as regards absolute dimensions and strength of material, that will at once change all its leviathan predecessors into pigmies. “The upper deck runs flush and clear from stem to stern for a breadth of about twenty feet on either side, thus affording two magnificent promenades for the passengers just within the bulwarks. These promenades will be each rather more than the eighth part of a mile long. Four turns up and down either of them would exceed a mile by 256 feet. The vessel when launched will be more than as long again as the steam-ship _Great Britain_; it will be nearly three times as long as the line-of-battle ship the _Duke of Wellington_, and nearly as long again as the _Himalaya_; eighty-eight feet more would make it as long again as the _Persia_, at present the longest vessel afloat upon the ocean. “It is anticipated that this multiplication of internal braces and supports will be sufficient to enable the hollow hull to resist, as a whole, very much more violence and much heavier strains than the elements can ever inflict upon it. “It is calculated that a sharp long wedge of this kind, impelled by the force of nearly 4000 horses, and extending its length on the water along a distance of nearly 700 feet, will pass through it with the speed of twenty miles an hour. This would be amply sufficient to enable it to make the voyage to India, round the Cape of Good Hope, in thirty days, or to Australia in thirty-three days. “The anchors alone will weigh 55 tons, and there will be 200 tons of capstans, cables, and warps connected with them. These ponderous implements obviously could not be wielded by human hands, and accordingly steam-sailors will be prepared to do what the flesh-and-blood sailors would not be able to accomplish. There will be journeymen steam-engines stationed conveniently for effecting the anchoring and weighing, and, indeed, for performing many other services ordinarily carried out by the crew. Possibly there will be steam-steersmen for the guidance of the mass. It is on account of this supplementary and subsidiary steam-service that only 400 men will be needed to work so vast a ship.